The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced the findings of the first health accounts report in presence of high-ranking officials from the government and private health sector in Dubai.

His Excellency Eng. Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the DHA, announced the details of first report of the health expenditure for the Emirate of Dubai.

He said, “This report will be published annually. The decision to implement the Health Accounts System of Dubai (HASD) is based on three pillars: Firstly, HASD allows measuring the financial dimensions of the health care system in the public and private sectors, which shows the efficiency of the allocation of the health funds. Secondly, HASD enables monitoring changes in the distribution of the available financial resources, comparing Dubai to other regional and international health systems. These changes give the Government and the investors the information necessary to measure the investments size. Thirdly, HASD allows the support and implementation of the health insurance system through monitoring the health spending.”

Professor Tawfik Khoja, General Director of the Executive Board of Health Ministers’ Council for GCC, congratulated the DHA during his keynote address and said, “The release of this report should be effectively utilized by the private and government sectors in Dubai, UAE, and the Gulf states.”

He also invited DHA to share methodologies used in producing the report with the other GCC states.

Dr. Haidar Saeed Al-Yousuf, Director of Health Funding Department, mentioned that DHA will publish HASD results periodically, to support the development of healthcare in Dubai.

He also added that the success of this report is a result of the support of stakeholders of the private and government health sector in Dubai.

Dr. Haidar noted that the workshop is aimed to disseminate the results in order to raise awareness about ways to use the results in planning the investment decisions for the health sector.

He concluded by making a link between the importance of the findings of the report and the new era of health financing in the Emirate through the Mandatory Health Insurance scheme.

“HASD measures the dimension of health spending before the scheme as a baseline. These indicators will be used to monitor changes overtime, as each wave of beneficiaries join the health insurance mandate, until the roll-out of the universal coverage is completed in 2016. Then, DHA will compare the situation post the implementation against the desired results, and will take the necessary measures in case of any deviation from these planned stages,” said Al Yousuf.

Al Yousuf added, “Of the Dhs10bn spent on health, 32% was funded by the government, 45% by the private sector and 22% by families and individuals. However, with the implementation of the mandatory health insurance, we expect these percentages will change, as employee share in the contribution of health funding will increase.”

In terms of the healthcare providers, 48% of the services were provided by hospitals, 22% by clinics and dispensaries, 12% by pharmacies and diagnostic services and 15% were services provided outside the emirate.

Of the Dhs10bn spent on healthcare, 74% was spent on curative care, 20% on medicines and medical equipment and 6% for preventive services.

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